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A TG Forum Interview With Dallas Denny
by Angela Gardner
Dallas Denny is the outgoing Executive Director of AEGIS,
the Atlanta based gender information organization. She has been
deepley involved in the transgender community for many years.
Recently we sat down in cyberspace for an electronic chat.
TGF: When did you first recognize your transgenderism?
DD: It snuck up on me for a year or so, and then hit me like a
sledgehammer when covered myself going through my mother's dresser
and trying on her undergarments. It wasn't anything I consciously
decided to do; I just found myself doing it. There was no denying
that something important was going on. By the time I was 15 I had
acquired a wardrobe, and at age 17, I was going out in public and
having all sorts of adventures. I was very lucky in that I passed
without effort, for the times were very dangerous.
I never denied what was going on inside me, or tried to fight it, but
I was smart enough to hide it for many years.
TGF: How did AEGIS come about?
DD: Since the late sixties, there has always been a place for
transsexuals to get information. The Erickson Association passed the
baton to Paul Walker's Janus Information Facility, who in turn passed
it to Joanna Clark and Jude Patton, who started J2CP. By 1990, Jude
had moved to Oregon and Joanna-- who was now Sister Mary Elizabeth--
was finding herself more and more involved in providing AIDS
information, and J2CP was winding down. I was also becoming
disenchanted with the whole transsexual mystique, with everyone
having to prove they were more transsexual than everyone else in
order to get treatment. As a mental health professional, I was
interested in people getting good information so they could weigh
their options and make informed decisions. Information wasn't easy to
come by ten years ago, and many transsexuals, myself included, were
making decisions out of desperation. I also wanted to empower
transsexuals to take control of their own lives, rather than giving
the authority to a gatekeeper. And so I started AEGIS in 1990.
Originally, we were the Atlanta Educational Gender Information
Service, but within a year, we went national, for the need was there.
I chose the organization's name-- and the acronym-- with the
possibility of going national in mind. The aegis, by the way, was a
shield given by Zeus to his daughter, Athena. It means auspices, or
protection.
TGF: Do you feel there really is a "transgender
community?"
DD: If there is a Presbyterian community or a Latino
community, there is a transgender community. For all its
fractiousness, the fact is that there is a network of transpeople who
know and work-- and occasionally fight-- with each other. For someone
like myself who didn't meet a single transsexual or transgenderist
until I was 40, it feels an awful lot like community. The fact that I
believe the community exists doesn't necessarily mean that I consider
it healthy.
TGF: If you were a tree.... just kidding.
DD: I wouldn't mind being a tree at all, providing I wasn't in
a national forest and thus subject to clearcutting.
TGF: After years of volunteer work for the community I
sometimes get really impatient with crossdressers because of all the
paranoia and self delusion that goes on. Has this happened for you,
and do you think it contributes to "burnout" of TG leaders?
DD: I do get frustrated with people not dealing honestly with
their situations. It's really the antithesis of what I'm all about.
I'm fine with fantasy and role-playing, because it can be a healthy
way of dealing with transgender issues, but all this stuff about
herbal hormones and magical hair removal systems makes me want to
tear out my hair.
Yes, I think many leaders do become burned out because they feel
their efforts are futile.
Am I burned out? I'm weary, and I feel I have definitely had my own
life on hold for too long. I do feel that 10 years on the telephone
lines is enough, and it's time to distribute the load. But no, I'm
not burned out. I do think things have changed so much that I and
lots of others need to stop and rethink what we're about and where we
want to go.
TGF: You announced that you were stepping down as Executive
Director of AEGIS. How come, and what's next for Dallas Denny?
DD: When I started AEGIS, the population we elected to serve
was transsexuals. I quickly realized that lots of people who didn't
consider themselves transsexual were accessing the same medical
technology as transsexuals. Consequently, about 1992 or 1993 AEGIS
changed its mission statement to serve anyone wishing to change their
bodies and social roles, regardless of their self-definition.
A few years ago, I realized that AEGIS had accomplished its goal. Our
once-radical mission statement was now only common sense. Here it
is:
We actively support the professionalization and standardization of
services for transsexual and transgendered persons; promote
non-judgmental, non-discriminatory treatment of persons with gender
issues; advocate respect for their dignity, their right to treatment,
and their right to choose their gender role; help transgendered
persons make reasoned and informed decisions about the ways in which
they will live their lives; and provide educational materials and
information to persons interested in gender issues.
In 1990, transsexuals were not in any sense considered consumers of
services. We took what we could get, and were supposed to be happy
about it. While AEGIS didn't make such sweeping social change all by
itself, we were at its forefront. Now our mission statement is a Duh!
And that means it's time for AEGIS to establish a new baseline.
By the way, I say we, not in the royal sense, but because I've had
lots of help through with years.
I'm stepping down because if AEGIS is to survive on the long term, it
must make the transition from being something I support to something
the community supports. The fact that I founded it doesn't
necessarily mean I'll be the best one to take it to its next phase.
And so I'm stepping down in hopes that someone will step forward.
I certainly plan to remain involved, but I won't be at the helm. I'll
just be helping to row the boat.
TGF: The It's Time America/AEGIS merger? Comments?
DD: I've been impressed with how well the merger talks have
gone-- the moreso since we're doing it via e-mail, rather than in
person.
We've decided upon mission and values statements and the core
functions of a hypothetical new organization, but we have not yet
committed to making that organization happen. The talks are
ongoing.
TGF: IFGE, have they lost the community's trust?
DD: Hoo, boy. If I say anything at all, I'm in trouble, but
here goes.
I attended the Tennessee Vals' Christmas Dinner, at which IFGE Board
Chair was the invited speaker. It was clear from what she said that
IFGE was originally intended to be the umbrella organization for the
community. For whatever reason, the IFGE board decided about five
years ago that the organization would no longer fill that role.
Merissa Sherrill Lynn used to emphatically deny that IFGE was an
umbrella organization.
IFGE walked away from what it was good at-- bringing people into the
community and making them feel good about themselves-- and in my
opinion has lacked direction ever since. Perhaps they're trying to be
what their name suggests, but as JoAnn Roberts pointed out in a
column some years ago, they are not truly international, they are not
a foundation, and they don't do all that much gender education.
To its credit, IFGE has made some positive personnel changes, both in
the Waltham office and on the Board. It has a dynamic new Executive
Director in Nancy Nangeroni and new faces on the Board-- but a power
clique on the Board continues to control things and is responsible
for the bad decisions that have cost IFGE so much of its
credibility.
I have hopes that IFGE will continue to mature as an organization.
It's come a long way, but it has a ways to go yet.
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